Children Perception of Disagreements in Family Purchase Decisions in India

Abstract

This study examines theextent to which the disagreements exist across stages of the decision making process in the purchase of child product and family product in Indian families. A cross-sectional survey method was carried out and the primary data for the study was collected through a “structured non-disguised” questionnaire. The sample population consisted of 766 families with school going children in the age group 13 to 18 years.Schools were selected on quota sampling basis to allow a reasonable representation of different socio-economic groups and cultures.The collected data have been analyzed and interpreted with the help of statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation and repeated measures ANOVA. It was hypothesized that: (i) the magnitude of disagreements in family decision making varies across decision making stages (H1), (ii) the magnitude of disagreements in family decision making varies across type of product (H2), and (iii) the pattern of disagreements in decision making stages varies across type of product (H3). Excepting H1, other hypotheses have found no support from aggregative data analysis results. Moreover, the disagreements are found to be highest in the purchase initiation stage, followed by information search stage, and final decision stage in case of both the child product and family product.